


Special Training Camp 103

by Agent_Bluefox



Series: X Company Short Stories [2]
Category: X Company (TV)
Genre: Existential Crisis, Gen, harry thinks he's crazy, having too much fun with tags, he may be right, mediocre writing skills on full display, set before the series, unnamed bald men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29765556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agent_Bluefox/pseuds/Agent_Bluefox
Summary: The (abridged) story of how Harry was recruited.
Series: X Company Short Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187687





	Special Training Camp 103

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, I know this isn't a terribly active fandom (unfortunately), but I decided to post anyway in the hopes that a few people enjoy them. 
> 
> This is pretty short, just an introduction of sorts to the rest of the little series I've been writing (and will post in segments). This is just a short piece where Harry decides whether or not to take Sinclair up on his offer (spoiler, the unnamed bald man is Sinclair :P )
> 
> I hope you enjoy!  
> More notes at the end of the work.

Special Training Camp 103  
January, 1942

Special Training Camp 103. 

At least, that was what the man had called it earlier. Harry couldn’t recall the man’s name, though he supposed it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t as though he was actually going to take him up on the offer. 

It was a joke. Him, Harry James, a spy? That was a laugh. In fact, if he could have told anyone, he was pretty sure that’s just what they would do; laugh in his face. Of course, he couldn’t tell anyone, as the man who’s name he couldn’t remember had made quite clear.  
Harry dropped onto the bed in his dormitory and stared down at the floor. He suddenly had the presence of mind to check his watch and stared blankly at it for several seconds. Four o’clock? Of what day? He had been walking back from classes when he was suddenly grabbed, bound, blindfolded, and thrown into the back of a truck. That must have been yesterday… 

Harry groaned. That meant he had missed all his classes for today. He slid down, laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling, grateful that his roommate was out. Again. It seemed the man was hardly ever in. Always out with some girl or… well, Harry wasn’t really sure what he did in his free time. 

Harry thought back, trying to place the time he had apparently lost. 

He had been thrown into a small room and shoved down on a hard metal chair, where he’d sat for some time, still bound and blindfolded. The rest was a blur. The blindfold was ripped off and a bald, middle-aged man in a loose overcoat questioned him. Wanted to know what he had been transmitting over the radio, demanding to know if he was a German spy. 

Harry felt a half-hysterical laugh bubble up in his throat at the thought. He wrapped his arms around himself and shook his head.  
After a while, he managed to convince the man that he was nothing more than an amateur, just playing around. That he’d even founded a radio club on campus. It was the truth. Radios, technology, morse code… they fascinated him. He explained exactly what he had been transmitting. Nothing more than a children’s book, just for practice, to get better with transmitting. 

The man had glanced back at a mirror that Harry had no doubt was a two-way mirror. He assumed whoever was on the other side checked the information.  
They went back and forth for a while. The whole conversation was very odd. The man asked about Harry’s personal history but seemed to know most of it anyway. Then came the oddest part of all. 

The man had offered him a job. 

Well, sort of anyway. 

“How would you like to work for us?” the man had asked. 

He had gone on to explain that he couldn’t explain anything. Just that he was Director of a special sort of training camp for the government. Special Training Camp 103. 

Harry mouthed the name almost without realizing it, turning it over in his mind. Camp X, another part of his mind supplied. It was a newly operational camp near Whitby that he had heard some people around campus talking about in hushed whispers. It had only just opened its doors apparently. Not two weeks ago, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor had been announced over the radio. 

Nobody really knew what it was or what it was properly called, so it earned the somewhat ominous and ambiguous title of simply ‘Camp X.’ 

That had to be it, he thought. It had to be the same Camp. 

He rolled over onto his side, feeling suddenly exhausted. He had drifted off sitting up for a while after they left him alone in the room but had jolted awake every few minutes in a panic. 

Shifting, he felt the man’s card bend in his pocket and fished it out, staring at the simple lettering. ‘Ontario Station, 1900 Hours,’ was all it read, spelled out in slightly smudged blue ink. The man said he had until then to make up his mind and that he sincerely hoped to see him there. 

Harry folded it and dropped it onto the blanket, shaking his head. It was insane. Surely, he wasn’t seriously considering it. He had responsibilities, he had studies, his mother was alone now that his brothers had gone off and enlisted… 

His brothers.

He stilled, thinking of something the man had said. 

“Three brothers, isn’t that right?”

Harry had nodded, unsure of how much he should say. 

“All in the service.” The man remarked. “Don’t you want to do your part too, Harry? This way, you wouldn’t end up a nameless face in the army or the navy, you’d be receiving specialized training. You’d know what you’re fighting for. You’d be doing just as much as your brothers, maybe more. You’d do your family proud.” 

He would like that, he admitted silently. To actually be doing something. 

Still, it was… crazy. Absolutely crazy. 

He checked the time. Five o’clock now. He wondered briefly how another hour had flown by without his realizing. 

He sat up and glanced at the homemade radio sitting on the small desk by the window. Glanced at the stack of books beside it and the disheveled bed of his roommate. 

“This is crazy,” he mumbled under his breath. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes before replacing them and suddenly getting to his feet. He pulled his duffle bag out from under the bed and emptied his side of the dresser drawer into it, his heart pounding the whole time and the sensible part of his mind telling him he was insane; that this was nothing more than a foolhardy decision that he was going to regret. 

He stuffed as many books as he could atop the half-folded clothes and zipped up the bag, regarding the radio for a moment before deciding that could stay for the next guy to sort out. 

“I think you’ll be an asset to us,” the man’s voice came back to him. “I think you’ll find a place where you can use your unique talents.”

Harry shook his head a little. It sounded… like a dream. He could use his radio skills, his knowledge of chemistry… and he could help with the war effort. Just like his brothers. 

He slung the bag over his shoulder and stepped out into the hall, taking the stairs two at a time, knowing that if he stopped, he might talk himself out of it. 

He skidded to a halt before the door, where there was a payphone on the wall. He inserted a quarter and dialed home. While it rang, he remembered the man’s words again. 

“Your family can’t know.”

Harry had frowned. “What do you mean they can’t know?”

“They’ll think you’re working at a desk somewhere. You’ll tell them you’re doing paperwork for the War Department. Fairly mundane, but top secret nonetheless; you can’t discuss it with them. It won’t lessen what you’re doing. In fact, it may make you even braver for it. But this is very important Harry. And you have to consider that.”

The ringing cut off and his mom’s familiar voice came through the line. 

“Mom,” he smiled. “Listen, I’ve got some news. No, no,” he hurried on when she expressed her concern. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.” He took a deep breath. Don’t think about it, just take the jump. “Actually, I’ve got a job. With the War Department.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank's so much for reading! 
> 
> Having recently discovered the show and falling in love with all the characters, I started writing a little series, covering the time before and after the actual show, as well as a bunch of little scenes in between. None of them are too long and they mostly focus on the characters. 
> 
> A lot of them will focus on the friendship between Neil and Harry simply because they're my favorite characters and I love the way they grow through the series. 
> 
> I'm going to try and post one every few days. I have about 13 mostly finished and I'm still writing. If you have any suggestions, stories you'd like to see, a general idea that you have, I would definitely welcome them!
> 
> Any comments or constructive criticisms are more than welcome!


End file.
